A neighbor of mine gave me some juniper branches which was just cut today and put in the containers which is what your seeing right now. Question is will this root if the branch itself is planted on the mixed substrate or not? what would be your advise towards this?

Those cuttings are rather large, so I doubt it. Most cuttings are about the thickness of a pencil, and they're usually dipped in a powdered rooting hormone.

_________________Jim Lewis - lewisjk@windstream.net - Western NC - People, when Columbus discovered this country, it was plumb full of nuts and berries. And I'm right here to tell you the berries are just about all gone. Uncle Dave Macon, old-time country musician

I have tried Juniper cuttings on a few occasions, mostly failed - those branches are I think just too big to succeed. The only result I had was with a small greenwood cutting, as Jim said using rooting hormone, but even then they take a very long time to actually root.